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Home Education Magazine
January-February 2000 - Columns
Older Kids - Beyond Names, Dates, and Places - Cafi Cohen
With early and middle years children, we study history by telling stories, constructing timelines, and learning names, dates, and places: "In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." We try to impart a framework consisting of who, when, and where.
We continue this process with teenagers and at the same time expand upon it. Teenagers have more mature critical thinking capabilities and can handle more grown-up information. Adolescent history study differs from that of younger children in three areas:
1. Discussing cause and effect
2. Comparing conflicting accounts and assessing sources
3. Handling more mature themes
Cause and Effect
Cicero, the ancient Roman orator and politician, wrote, "The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves." Unfortunately, the typical American knows when and where the Pilgrims landed but has no idea why. As a consequence, the typical American has missed all the interesting stuff. While younger children, like our typical American, learn when and where Columbus sailed, teenagers should proceed to the next step , discussing the multiple influences that caused Columbus to make his historic voyages.
Cause and effect in history are just as complicated as cause and effect in everyday life. We seldom ascribe a single cause to our actions. Similarly, teens are ready to understand that different authors , depending on their biases , will cite different reasons for historical events. A classic example is the onset of the War Between The States (or the Civil War or the War for Southern Independence, depending on your sources). Frequently cited causes include slavery, statesŐ rights, and culture and lifestyle conflicts. "How did these causes interact?" and "Which was most important?" are questions that fuel lively discussions.
Contrasting Accounts and Sources
Will and Ariel Durant authored the eleven-volume opus, The Story of Civilization. Will Durant pointed out the inadequacies of any historical account, commenting, "Only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We will proceed." Never expect the full picture of any situation from a single author. Never expect an unbiased account in any history book , even and especially those written by committees. Never expect absolute truth.
Teenagers are ready to read different accounts of historical events and, in assessing these accounts, develop their critical thinking abilities. With your teens, you can begin to closely examine the backgrounds and motives of historians. How similar are accounts from different authors? What is the quality of their sources? How well do they support their arguments about cause and effect? How can a reader evaluate these accounts?
Mature Themes
As our children move into adolescence, they begin to learn about and discuss some of the darker periods of history, like the Holocaust. We all understand the reluctance to discuss difficult subjects like massacres and bloody conflicts with early-years children. The teen years are the time to bridge the gap between childish knowledge and adult knowledge, and to realistically describe things like the horrors of war.
In addition, teenagers are ready to learn the facts behind the facts , that some of our country's founding fathers owned slaves and that the settlement of North America by European adventurers and explorers brought terror and disease to native Americans, for example. Nearly every turning point in history is accompanied by good and bad effects, depending on which group of people you consider. The teen years are a time to delve more deeply and see the full picture.
Creative Approaches To History
If you ask 100 homeschooled teenagers about their favorite subject, you will hear a surprisingly high percentage respond "history". Homeschooling families, in most cases, go far beyond a dry recital of names, dates, and places , focusing, instead on approaches that make history not only interesting and fun, but in some cases addictive. Read on to learn about some of these approaches.
* See The Movie
This is probably the most popular way to begin the study of any historical topic. So many readily available movies and documentaries fit into the category of Historical Film (see sidebar). Our teenagers thoroughly enjoyed The Great Escape, an account of the largest escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp in World War II. Obtain many of these videos free at your local library. Or tape them from PBS and cable entities like The Learning Channel, The History Channel, and Arts and Entertainment.
* Read Beyond Textbooks
Historical fiction, biographies, and popular histories make gripping reading. Examples are Gone With The Wind (historical fiction), Roots (biography), and the recently released The Illustrated Longitude by Dava Sobel (popular history). This last title, published in 1998, contains a fascinating 'I can't put this book down' account of a relatively unknown genius who solved The greatest scientific problems of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , how to measure longitude.
* Join The Re-Enactors
I have heard from many homeschooled teenagers about the Civil War re-Enactment groups that meet all over the nation. Generally, participants assume the identity of someone in a particular regiment. They dress the part and join the battle, realistic in as many details as possible , except for the live ammunition! Find more information about Civil War re-enactment at www.cwreenactors.com.
Another popular activity along these lines is the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), an international organization dedicated to, according to their website, "The study and recreation of the European Middle Ages, its crafts, sciences, arts, traditions, literature, and so on. The SCA 'period' is defined to be Western civilization before 1600 AD, concentrating on the Western European High Middle Ages. Under the aegis of the SCA we study dance, calligraphy, martial arts, cooking, metalwork, stained glass, costuming, literature... well, if they did it, somebody in the SCA does it (except die of the Plague!)."
They go on to point out that what separates the SCA from a Humanities 101 class is the active participation in learning. To learn costuming, participants design and make costumes. To study war, participants make infantry wear, armor, weapons and so on. Typical events are feasts, archery tourneys, dance balls, meetings. Participants in these groups usually assume the identity of a Renaissance (or earlier) character. Months of research goes into developing each character's dress, occupation, and personality. Great for hands-on kinesthetic , and dramatic , history buffs of all ages. Contact for the Society for Creative Anachronism is www.sca.org or (800)780-7486.
* Tie History To An Interest
Everything has a history , natural disasters, music, aircraft, math, libraries, card games, gardening, computer games, film, even skateboards. Many homeschoolers enjoy exploring the history of another primarily non-historical interest. Math whizzes study ancient numbering systems. Our son , now an F-16 pilot , loved anything concerning the history of aviation and aerospace. Beginning the mythological Icarus, who made the first wings with feathers joined with wax, aeronautics goes back to ancient times. Our daughter was fascinated by Bette Davis and loved old movies. She watched hundreds of pre-1940s films, and read books about early film-making for a course we eventually documented as "The History of Film" on her transcripts.
* Read about History of Everyday Life
So many history texts include only information about wars, rulers, and boundary changes of countries , the big stuff. Your teenager may prefer to delve into slang and everyday speech, lighting methods, popular clothing styles, occupations, money, health, medicine, food, amusements, courtship and marriage, crime , in short, the history of everyday life.
From The Writer's Guide To Everyday Life In the 1800s, check out some of the idioms and vocabulary:
"Candlelighting" meant dusk or early evening.
"Guttersnipe" meant a homeless child who roamed or slept in the streets.
"Like a book" meant to speak eloquently or with a large vocabulary.
Interestingly, even simple vocabulary study can begin to paint a picture of the how people lived in earlier times. For more reading about everyday life, don't miss the new publication, History magazine www.history-magazine.com. Articles in the current issue include "The Black Death," "Bread," and "The Code Napoleon." Sample issue is free, upon request.
* Do History
Family history gives homeschooling teens a chance not only to study and learn history, but also to do history. Family historians and history writers practice all those tasks we worry about homeschoolers accomplishing when they go to college: taking notes, organizing research material, and writing. Better than that, family historians have the opportunity to obtain primary source material and to interview eyewitnesses. A good beginner project? Interview parents and grandparents, then write their biographies. Dress these up with time lines, photos, captions, and cartoons, even family trees.
* Combine History With Travel
Travel is a natural spur to study history because when we travel the first things we notice are those things that differ from where we live. These might include the language, customs, and laws, for instance. History begins to answer the question: "How and why are things different here than at home?"
Homeschooling freedom makes history fun. Use textbooks for reference or to gain an overview of a period. Otherwise, dive in and enjoy the many fascinating pursuits this subject creates. You need not copy schools and do a year each of American History, World History, and Geography to create a good history background for your teens. Be creative, see where your nose leads you, and explore some of the resources accompanying this column.
© 2000, Cafi Cohen
January-February 2000
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